DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0203
142, TROY AND ITS REMAINS. [Ch. IX. 1872.
ulcers, especially her face, and one terrible ulcer on the left
eye had made it quite useless. She could scarcely speak,
walk or stand, and, as her mother said, she had no appetite;
her chest had fallen in, and she coughed. I saw imme-
diately that excessive bleeding and the consequent want
of blood had given rise to all her ailments, and therefore
I did not ask whether she had been bled, but how many
times. The answer was, the girl had taken cold, and the
parish priest had bled her seven times in one month. I
gave her a dose of castor oil, and ordered her a sea bath
every day, and that, when she had recovered sufficient
strength, her father should put her through some simple
passive gymnastic exercises—which I carefully described—
in order to expand her chest. I was quite touched when
early this morning the same girl appeared on the platform,
threw herself on the ground, kissed my dirty shoes, and
told me, with tears of joy that even the first sea bath had
given her an appetite, that all the sores had begun to heal .
directly, and had now disappeared, but that the left eye was
still blind, otherwise she was perfectly well, for even the
cough had left her. I, of course, cannot cure the eye; it
seems to me to be covered with a skin which an oculist
might easily remove. The girl had come on foot from Neo-
Chori, a distance of three hours, to thank me, and I can
assure my readers that this is the first case, in the Plain of
Troy, in which I have received thanks for medicines or
medical advice; but I am not even quite sure whether it
was a feeling of pure gratitude that induced the girl to come
to me, or whether it was in the hope that by some other
means I might restore sight to the blind eye.
The heat has increased considerably during the last
few days; the thermometer stands the whole day at 25
Reaumur (88|° Fahrenheit) in the shade.
ulcers, especially her face, and one terrible ulcer on the left
eye had made it quite useless. She could scarcely speak,
walk or stand, and, as her mother said, she had no appetite;
her chest had fallen in, and she coughed. I saw imme-
diately that excessive bleeding and the consequent want
of blood had given rise to all her ailments, and therefore
I did not ask whether she had been bled, but how many
times. The answer was, the girl had taken cold, and the
parish priest had bled her seven times in one month. I
gave her a dose of castor oil, and ordered her a sea bath
every day, and that, when she had recovered sufficient
strength, her father should put her through some simple
passive gymnastic exercises—which I carefully described—
in order to expand her chest. I was quite touched when
early this morning the same girl appeared on the platform,
threw herself on the ground, kissed my dirty shoes, and
told me, with tears of joy that even the first sea bath had
given her an appetite, that all the sores had begun to heal .
directly, and had now disappeared, but that the left eye was
still blind, otherwise she was perfectly well, for even the
cough had left her. I, of course, cannot cure the eye; it
seems to me to be covered with a skin which an oculist
might easily remove. The girl had come on foot from Neo-
Chori, a distance of three hours, to thank me, and I can
assure my readers that this is the first case, in the Plain of
Troy, in which I have received thanks for medicines or
medical advice; but I am not even quite sure whether it
was a feeling of pure gratitude that induced the girl to come
to me, or whether it was in the hope that by some other
means I might restore sight to the blind eye.
The heat has increased considerably during the last
few days; the thermometer stands the whole day at 25
Reaumur (88|° Fahrenheit) in the shade.